Would a vile restaurant review deter you from visiting that restaurant?

I read reviews for a restaurant. 90% were good. I want to try the food there.

I read one review where the person found a finger nail in their food.

I am and not sure I want to go any more. Am I overreacting?

 

I take all reviews, especially on the internet, good or bad, with a grain of salt. There is so much inaccuracy, bias, and so on, that it is very difficult to filter out the irrelevant. I do however look for trends in places with lots of reviews from several sources.

 

At least it wasn't the whole finger.:evillaugh

 

Yes, you are overreacting. One bad opinion out of many -- well some people have agendas. If you see all bad reviews (cough: Chris Angel cough) then avoid it.

 

For the most part, I am not one of those people that believes in conspiracy theories or that a lot of people have agendas when posting bad reviews.

Are there some people who post false reviews for a purpose? Maybe but probably few and far between.

For this discussion, lets assume that this review is legitimate.

 

There have been reports of online retailers pumping up certain products, or manufacturers paying people to post good reviews all over for them, and I personally know a store owner who has a guy with a grudge constantly posting negative on google reviews about him, so it does happen quite a bit.

 

Okay, then instead of conspiracy, lets just say one person was having a bad day. Or one waiter was having a bad day. Or something that the one person ate just wasn't to their taste. Regardless, one bad review out of many is an outlier, and should be ignored.

Now if there are 90 good and 20 bad, then I might think there's something there, and would start to look at what the 20 people are seeing that's bad, and if I might see it the same way (for example, if 15 of those reviews mentioned a poor wine list, I'd ignore that because I don't drink wine.)

 

Depends I suppose

If I go to a restaurant and I am grossed out, I won't return. I have a few on that list. My own personal opinion and circumstance.

I know if it is supposed to be a good restaurant I am the special circumstance. I was the unlucky one but I still won't return no matter if someone else is paying.

But if I had visited the restaurant numerous times, and I have always had a good or great experience I would go back.

 

Sounds like an isolated incident, wouldn't prevent me from visiting.
Several reviews of bad service or low quality food etc would sway me more.

 

would not deter me.

think about it. People are super picky about some things, hotel rooms and resteraunts are 2 of them.

If there was a trend of poor reviews i might think twice but just a few tells me that there are just some picky people nitpicking things.

 

A random review on the Internet? No way.

However, if it was someone I knew and trusted then it would probably have an impact on making me want to go there.

 

I read somewere before than 90% of the people who take the time to write a review/comment on a website do so to complain

People who are satisfied dont make a big deal out of it

 

I prefer to go with word of mouth from people I know & whose opinions I trust over internet reviews.

But if the internet is my only resource, I am in the camp that believes your best bet is to look for trends in multiple locations - one or two bad reviews somewhere? Could be a fluke, could be someone with an agenda, could be someone looking to settle a score. But if generally feedback on a place - and I would say this applies to all businesses, not just restaurants - if feedback is consistently overwhelmingly positive or negative across a number of different sites, I've found that's generally a pretty good indicator of how good or bad a place actually is.

 

Its actually not really few and far between.

There are people that do it to try and hurt a business... that do it to hurt a competitor... that do it because they had a small bone to pick with the restaurant and it alone isn't big enough to make their point so they have to keep complaining to get people to listen to them... that do it because they want the restaurant to contact them with a "Sorry you had a bad experience, why don't you come back for a free meal on us?"... that do it because they had one small incident that they are blowing out of proportion...

Even if the review is legitimate you have to assume it is a one off situation, that or else you believe that they are constantly serving chunks of fingers in their food.

Stuff happens, could be this restaurant, could be another. One off incidents like that might seem gross and disgusting but the key is how the restaurant responded. Because most of their food is going to be prepackaged from a third party there are always going to be the chance of incidents happening and if this restaurant wasn't the one that got a can or bag of whatever with a fingernail in it then it would have been another.

 

Unfortunately, it could happen anywhere. I would still go if it was a place I scoped out.

 

I'd rely on the majority opinion, especially if it's that one-sided. There's weird people everywhere... they see crazy stuff and ALWAYS take the contrary opinion seemingly just to get a rise. Sounds like the place is worth a try.

 

It would not deter me. 90% is a good rating.

 

A negative review would not deter me as I think a lot of internet restaurant reviews are family and friend initiated. If there was a finger nail in my food I would not pay and would leave the restaurant.
We all know we have been to restaurants that are highly rated and when we go there we wonder how in the world did they get such a positive/good rating. We try to rely on friends or others for input. Some of the best best local eateries in hotels have been recommended by desk clerks or bellmen.

 

This is a very good way to look at it.

 

How about input from say, a legit inspection resource,(governmental or regulatory) or would that be suspect?